When Facebook introduced its Ad Library in May 2018, it heralded the archive of political ads and political issue content run by advertisers as a new era of transparency, making information public such as the campaign budget associated with the ad and how many people saw it, as well as their ages, locations and genders….
Liz Kennedy joined Facebook as manager, voting rights, and she will serve as the civil rights team’s expert on voting rights and civics. She had been senior policy advisor at the Center for Secure and Modern Elections, working on modernizing voter registration and making voting more accessible. Prior to that, Kennedy was senior director of…
The majority of Americans who responded to a recent survey by Pew Research Center want to see the regulation hammer come down on “Big Tech.” In a survey of 4,623 U.S. adults conducted from April 12 through 18, Pew found that 56% of respondents believe major technology companies should be regulated more than they currently…
The bulk of posts from members of Congress that mentioned China in recent years have come from a relatively small number of Republicans, according to a new analysis from Pew Research Center. Researchers from the think tank examined every Facebook post and tweet by voting members of the House of Representatives and Senate from Jan….
With former President Donald Trump permanently banned from Twitter since the days after January’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Trump’s team apparently decided to create its own version of Twitter. An application called Gettr quietly made its way onto the Google Play Store and iTunes App Store last month, with more than 1,000 downloads to…
Should people have the right to sue social media platforms for content posted by other users? A majority of the 4,623 U.S. adults who responded to a recent survey by think tank Pew Research Center believe the answer is no. Pew said 56% of respondents feel that people should not be able to sue social…
A study of 25 popular Facebook pages focused on current affairs, conducted by think tank Pew Research Center, found then when it came to early assessments of the administration of President Joe Biden, posts from those pages were consistent with their self-identified ideological orientations. Pew used data from Facebook-owned public insights tool CrowdTangle to narrow…
President Joe Biden overturned executive orders from former President Donald Trump that aimed to prevent TikTok, WeChat and other communications and financial technology companies that are controlled by companies based in China from operating in the U.S., but those companies are not out of the woods yet. A new executive order signed by Biden this…
Facebook responded to the ruling on former President Donald Trump by its independent content oversight board, paving the way for his potential return to Facebook and Instagram Jan. 7, 2023–two years from the date when his accounts were suspended. The oversight board weighed in last month, upholding the social network’s decision to suspend for his…
TikTok banned political ads from its platform in October 2019, saying at the time that they did not fit with the experience provided by its platform, but there are ways around that ban, and they are being exploited, according to a new report from Mozilla. Researchers from Mozilla tapped TikTok’s application-programming interface and examined posts…
Conservative darling social platform Parler returned to the iTunes App Store Monday, with a “PG” version of its application that treats potentially toxic content differently than its Android counterpart does. Parler said in its iTunes App Store listing that the new version of its app had “enhanced threat and incitement reporting tools,” and chief policy…
After Donald Trump used social media to egg on an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, every major social media platform gave him the boot. Facebook, which had gone relatively easy on Trump’s past infractions, indefinitely suspended the then-president days before he was set to leave office. But the company kicked the decision…
Snapchat and VMLY&R have joined forces to encourage Gen Z users to vote in the U.K. local council elections on May 6. The partnership created “Speech to Street,” which features a Snapchat AR Lens acting as a political platform for users. The feature was developed as the winning entry of last year’s Snapchat Creative Council…
Presidents–even divisive ones–have historically shared one consolation prize when they leave office: As time moves on, Americans tend to take an increasingly generous view of them. A few years ago, Gallup conducted a poll asking Americans what they thought of nine former presidents, and nearly all of them enjoyed a good measure of reputation recovery….
There’s no denying that 2020 has been a difficult year and, according to Americans surveyed by Pew Research Center recently, social media isn’t helping. Pew said 64% of respondents believe social media has a mostly negative effect on the way things are currently going in the country, with roughly one-quarter saying those platforms have neither…
Challenges aren’t just for TikTok anymore, as a host of celebrities took to Instagram Reels as part of the #RunwayToThePolls challenge, aimed at driving people to vote early and from home. The #RunwayToThePolls challenge was spearheaded by I am a voter, in partnership with the Black in Fashion Council and the Council of Fashion Designers…
Despite what often seems like a one-man crusade by Republican President Donald Trump to tilt the balance, a new study from Pew Research Center found that Twitter is dominated by the Democrats. Pew analyzed the Twitter activity of 3,518 U.S. adults with public accounts whose Twitter activity could be matched to their survey responses, including…
For many years, conventional marketing wisdom held that brands should steer clear of political issues. The reasoning was simple enough: What company could afford to alienate a single customer by taking a position on something controversial? But as the socially conscious millennial generation has taken its place as a $1.4 trillion spending bloc, there’s been…
With Election Day less than three weeks away, early voting is currently underway in about 20 U.S. states. In one of many campaigns urging voters to set aside time to get to the polls during the early voting window–which generally means shorter lines and less congestion at polling locations–Brooklyn-based IPG agency Huge rolled out a…
As Election Day draws nearer, Instagram said the Voting Information Center it unveiled in August has been visited by over 35 million people. The Voting Information Center gives users one place to register to vote, confirm their registration status, make plans to vote and get whatever information they need prior to Election Day. Instagram also…
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